WAVE PARAMETERS OF THE SPERM FLAGELLUM AS PREDICTORS OF HUMAN SPERMATOZOA MOTILITY

We characterized the undulatory movement of the sperm's flagellum as a sigmoid wave by measuring the absolute and linear speed of the sperm, period, amplitude and length of the flagellum's wave, and the segment comprised between the head and the origin of the movement in the flag ellum. These parameters were correlated with traditional ones used to determine the pattern of movement of the sperm. Our results show that wave parameters are useful predictors of sperm motility. They correlat e among themselves, and thus, a few wave parameters may characterize t he sperm motility. The advantage of wave parameters is that they can b e easily obtained and can be eventually associated to the sperms' inte rnal morphology.